Within this silent land, only the grotesque voice belonging to a frog-like humanoid creature reverberated. His blood gushed out of his missing arm and his scream pierced the ears of the listeners.

“GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAOOOOOAAAAK!”

The previous eyes filled with arrogance and confidence which he used to look at the girl with were now only showing terror. He couldn’t process what had happened and wasn’t even sure if the arm on the ground belonged to him.

Realizing what happened, Kröte started crawling on the ground to get away from the girl who easily followed after him with but a few steps.

“S-Stay away *Kroak*”

Shina didn’t pay much attention to his words, once again raising her spear under Kröte’s terrified eyes, the spear pierced his leg accompanied with the deafening scream of the toad man.

“Noisy…” She complained as she made her spear rotate while still being embedded within the leg, making blood gush out without stopping.

“GYAAAUOOKK! I...I understa...nd, I...won..’t come after you anymore… *Kroak* Please stop… *Kroak*”

Retrieving her spear, Shina’s arm stopped moving as she glanced at him with calculating eyes. She mentally started comparing the pros and cons of letting the frogman go, while there might be a chance of him truly leaving Kanabo alone… Knowing his personality, he would definitely try to get some revenge on her while Shina was gone.

Not even able to provide her with a single reason to spare him, her spear pierced his shoulder with such strength that it pinned him on the ground and prevented him from moving under the heart-shattering pain that filled his body.

“S-Spare me…otherwise...*Kroak* M-My father won’t forgi...ve you… *Kroak* He-He’ll be here...soon… *Kroak*”

“Begging for mercy… Mom said that only the strong were allowed in this land, that there was no place for coward…” She dropped her foot on his neck, ready to break it into pieces.

It wasn’t that Shina particularly liked courageous people, but simply that Kröte reminded her of her previous adopting father who acted strong yet bootlicked anyone who was stronger than him.

“S-Shina… Don’t kill him, leave him as he is and let’s run away!”

Kanabo who was lying on the ground and protected by Kiel muttered those words with difficulties as she was still under the seal’s effect which prevented any kind of movements.

Shina who was ready to finish him off hesitated for an instant, Kröte who noticed it started yelling at his soldiers who were watching him being tortured like it wasn’t their problem.

“What are you all doing?! *Kroak* You are supposed to protect me you pieces of trash! Hurry and save me! *Kroak*”

“Hmph…”

Her previous hesitation vanished under Kröte’s words. Despite his current situation, he still thought that his soldiers might be able to save him… But she hadn’t noticed the inaudible sound that kept being transmitted by him.

The world around Shina suddenly grew darker and darker until everything around her vanished. Kanabo, Kröte, the soldiers, the blood stained land, the trees and the sky… Everything vanished into nothingness, she was surrounded by pure darkness and could only clearly see her own body.

It was like being imprisoned within a prison devoid of light despite the fact that she could see herself clearly.

Shina suddenly realized that all along he had been trying to gain some time.

Colors slowly returned to the darkness, the colors formed walls, a ceiling and various pieces of furniture. A cabinet, a disgusting bed of low quality, rotten walls and a plate with a little chunk of hard bread. She was in a familiar room that she hadn’t seen for years, the room where she spent years of suffering, living through hell as a doll for a certain family.

The door opened and an alcoholic man entered the room, throwing a bottle of glass on the wall next to the bed. The bottle shattered and glass filled the bed where a little-malnourished girl was sleeping.

Shouting a few inaudible words to the girl, she nodded in acquiescence and rose up from her bed, cutting herself in the process as she tried to avoid touching the glass shard and started cleaning them off.

Shina looked at the girl with complex eyes, it was her previous life and an event that indeed happened. It was like she was reliving this memory and the feelings she felt at this time… Injustice, hatred, tiredness… The feeling of wanting to let everything go and give up on living.

The girl kept picking up glass shard, cutting herself many times in the process while staining the dirty bed with her blood. A few tears fell from her cheek as she stared at the drops of blood coming out of her fingers.

Forgetting everything that happened before, Shina wanted to take the girl in her arms and tell her that everything would be alright; she wouldn’t live the rest of her life like this… She would meet people who will care about her and make some friends… To keep enduring it for a while.

But all the memories that filled her mind started to get cloudy and the girl’s feeling permeated more and more into her heart as if they had started to fuse.

A feeling of powerlessness filled her body, she couldn’t resist this external influence that tried to erase her memories. The shadow of a large frog appeared behind her, unlike Kröte it wasn’t an humanoid frog but a real one. At least three meters tall, the frog’s mouth was unexpectedly filled with long and large sharp teeths that he licked with his bulky tongue.

The frog looked at Shina with both anger and happiness, enjoying the helplessness Shina was feeling as he made her revert to her previous self.

“*Kruoook*For what you did to my son… I’ll mentally destroy you and then eat you…”

His eyes glittered and the scenery surrounding Shina once again changed, it now reflected her being beaten up by her adoptive mother for being too slow in cleaning the house. She was complaining about the dust on the television and how she felt humiliated after noticing it while having guests.

“Such tasty memories, such fear… What a delight…”

Her memory kept reverting to her previous self… Unable to defend against this kind of mental attack that she had never experienced before, as a mean of self-protection, she dropped to the ground, fainting as the scene disappeared and returned to darkness.

Looking very disappointed, the frog looked at her frail figure while licking his lips with an expression filled with ecstasy and cruelty.

“Krouk Krouk Krouk* She already fainted~ I wanted to torture her some more but that’s enough… I’ll devour her memories and eat her.”

Closing the distance between him and Shina with a single hop, his tongue extended toward her body in an attempt to first devour her memories. But the moment his tongue was about to touch her body and enter her mind, two bloody eyes filled with an immeasurable amount of bloodlust pierced through his brain and almost destroyed his mental capacities.

“Fuck off!”

A woman’s voice screamed at him;  the mere sound of this voice made him throw out and cough a large amount blood.

At the same time, a phantomatic black sword formed behind Shina and charged toward him with such strength that it easily cut through the darkness of his illusion, destroying this illusory dimension.

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The sword mercilessly flew toward him but only managed to cut his tongue out before disappearing as Shina started regaining conscious after the illusion was dispelled.

Her eyes opened and the first thing she saw was the sky, she was lying on the ground beside the trembling Kröte. It was as if she had merely fainted. A few meters away from her, a large frog was screaming his lungs out with bloodshot eyes while coughing blood.

His salivate was mixed with the blood coming out of his missing tongue which was lying on the ground. Shina could barely remember what had happened, it was like her memories were clouded by some kind of fog.

It was like waking up after having a bad and terrifying dream but being unable to recall what it was about no matter how hard you tried to. Yet, despite how terrifying it felt she also recalled someone embraces her body within this cold place. Someone very familiar to her yet that she had never met…

“W-Who are you?! *Krouk* Who interfered?! Do you know who I am?! *Krouk*”

The large frog screamed to the sky as if trying to talk to someone. His screams were filled with arrogance and pride, but also injustice like he was wronged.

From within Shina’s shadow, the figure of a woman formed and held on her weakened body, her silverish hairs danced with him and red eyes glared coldly at the frog. Her eyes glanced at the surrounding areas with astonishment. It was a pure carnage… Some areas were burnt beyond recognition, some limbs and heads were lying around, some corpses were crushed and some pieces of meat were lying here and there.

Blood was staining the ground and was forming puddles of blood. It was hard to believe that this was the same place as before. Moreover, the one who probably did all of that was the girl lying in her arms. Her previously black dress was now painted in crimson.

“What are you doing here… Ranae.”

The large frog, Ranae looked extremely ferocious with his body covered with his own blood. He glared at Listae like she was his lifetime enemy and wanted to eat her whole with a single gulp… But he knew that he wasn’t strong enough.

Who was she? She was one of the lord’s second… The most powerful vampiress in existence and very few people could match her power. In front of her, he couldn’t even be qualified as a child.

“What are you doing interfering in my matters… Listae Bran.”

Listae’s anger soared and all the blood around her coagulated and started rising in the air. With a movement of her finger, the seal pressuring Kanabo was destroyed.

“Bringing an army within this realm… Defiling this place with violence… Does your new status as a junior elder makes you think that you can ignore the lord’s laws?!”

*Kr...Krouk Krouk Krouk*

Unexpectedly, Ranae suddenly started laughing which made Listae even angrier. Despite not being the one leading the law enforcers in the city, she was still one of the ruling people who applied her lord’s rules on the inhabitant.

Yet the man in front of her dared to laugh at her.

“I don’t see which law I’ve broken…”

Listae’s eyes widened in anger, but Kanabo standing at her side quickly understood what was going on and her expression turned into fear.

“Kanabo… Come back home! *Krouk*” He ordered like it was natural.

Not understanding what was going on, Listae glared at him while blocking his path to the girls by standing in front of them.

“*Kroak* What are you doing Listae?”

According to the laws, one wasn’t allowed to bring that many servants within the darkened realm, but this wasn’t a real offense and this law could more or less be bent by certain powerful persons. It was simply made to prevent people from shamelessly trying to invade the city by using numbers.

But within the darkened realm, killing was strictly forbidden… Whoever was deemed guilty would immediately be chased by the authorities wherever he hid and executed. It was a strict law that even Listae couldn’t break despite her high status within the city.

Of course, there were a few exceptions such as self-defense after being attacked and endangered.

Realizing the meaning behind his words, Listae quickly turned toward Kanabo.

“Did you perhaps… enter the city as a servant of his family?!”

The single nod of Kanabo’s head made this story far more difficult and complex than it originally was.

Kanabo belonged to Ranae’s family, she wasn’t treated as a member of the city… As such, she couldn’t be viewed as a member of the city but simply as an object belonging to Ranae. Her life and death belonged to him, just like all of the lizard men standing beside them.

As such, Shina who had tried to protect Kanabo could only be deemed as a thief who tried to steal his possession… Moreover, killing his soldiers and assaulting Kröte was made her into a criminal.

“Ranae… Don’t go too far…”

Despite how much she glared at him and wished to tear him apart… Listae was still a representant of the city and couldn’t ignore the laws. In fact, the representant of the Lord who made the laws and as such was the only person within the city who couldn’t break them.

The moment she acted, her opponent who was also Ranae’s backer would definitely use this opportunity to challenge her authority and try to have her abandon her post…

‘Tch… Lord, just where have you gone!’

Her Lord had vanished a few thousand years ago without any warning and left her the task of supervising the city. Within these thousands of years, some factions fused and some new one appeared… Some people used the absence of the lord to gain power and were now attempting to obtain Listae’s position.

But this wasn’t a democracy… but an absolute monarchy with someone above everyone else who didn’t give a damn about anything. With a single order, she would be able to purge anyone opposing her.

Yet, despite having received the new of her lord arriving in the city… She couldn’t find any trace of her.

“Listae, give them to me… Are you ignoring the lord’s laws?! …”

In this case, Ranae was in the right and Listae couldn’t oppose him… She was unwilling to obey, but she couldn’t find a single solution.

Her face reddened and she gritted her teeth so hard that they started bleeding. At the same time, Shina smiled and opened her mouth. An inaudible sound to everyone present came out of her lips… Inaudible to everyone but one person…

The dimensions started shaking, the sky turned red started crackling. The space shattered, stars exploded, red clouds gathered and scattered at the same time.

Walking through the shattered space with cold eyes and a bloodthirst that could exterminate a galaxy, each of her steps pressured the living being no matter their origin. Hairs as dark as the night, eyes as red as blood, a killing intent that pierced the sky and heart of the watchers.

They were the same eyes as Ranae had seen when he tried to enter Shina’s mind.

Her body vanished and she appeared beside Listae with Shina in her arms. Her mere glance pressured Ranae to the ground and forced Listae to her knees.

Listae closed her eyes and dropped her head in submission.

“Lord…”